SOURCE: “C. L. R. James: West Indian George Lamming Interviewed,” in C. L. R. James's Caribbean, Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 28-36.

In the following interview, conducted by Paul Buhle on November 25, 1987, Lamming discusses C. L. R. James's writing and the effect it has on other West Indian writers, including Lamming himself.

[Buhle:] Can you describe [C. L. R.] James's influence on you and the other West Indians in England during the 1950s?

[Lamming:] I think that his friendships among West Indians in England were pretty general. He had a seminar thing, a generation who used to go to Staverton Road, and who were concerned with transforming the Caribbean society. In some cases there were people who had no political connections, and the importance of those meetings [was] in helping them relate to professions. It was a pervasive influence over a number of people. All that they had in...